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Rating: Summary: meh Review: As a die hard fan of Wilco, let me just say that I learned a lot about the group. It's nice to finally read something about Wilco that is honest, warts and all, and not just a rant about how the music industry has once again screwed over the little guy.That said, however.... I really felt that Kot's rhetoric really distracted from the purpose of the book, which I can only assume was to present readers with an honest assesment of the band. The author seemed to have some opinions that led me to think that perhaps he was a bit more biased than he would like to think himself. Also, it bothered me that he took direct quotes from "I AM Trying To Break Your Heart" (a film by Sam Jones) and interpreted them COMPLETELY out of context, with the result of changing the meaning of the statement. That's all, I guess. The anecdotes were really neat.
Rating: Summary: A great book about music--a great book about people Review: As someone who likes Wilco, but is not a die-hard fan, I really appreciate the book for what it is: It is not a critic's review, it is not a fan-oriented biography-it is simply a superbly written, well-researched book about all that goes into the loaded concept that is "making music." Through his elegant prose, Kot delves into human relationships, band dynamics, artistic struggles, and identity-both personal and public. If you like Wilco, read this book. If you like music, read this book. Or, if you admire those moments when the creative process manages to overcome life's obstacles, read this book.
Rating: Summary: For Diehards Only Review: Greg Kot's biography of the great band Wilco - and more specifically, the extraordinary musician, Jeff Tweedy - is nothing if not a competent work. Kot writes with clarity about the history of the band, the players involved, and sheds a fair amount of light on their creative process. His level of hyperbole is actually very restrained by rock critic standards, and this really is more than just a glorified set of liner notes. In other words, it's a book that huge Wilco fans (like myself) are likely to enjoy, both for a few new details and for the pleasure of retracing the band's rise to recording security. What the book doesn't do, I think, is provide a story so dramatic or important that anyone who's not a diehard should feel compelled to read. The story of the band's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" record, and the accompanying label fiasco, is certainly an episode worth any music fan's study/outrage, but there's nothing here which truly enlightens the band's content, or attempts to treat the fascinating question of why this strange and powerful songwriter from Belleville, Illinois has captured the adoration and imagination of so many listeners, critics, and journalists.
Rating: Summary: A good read for the fans Review: I really enjoyed Greg Kot's book about Wilco. I've read many of Kot's articles in the Chicago paper about the band, and I was looking forward to reading this book as soon as I heard about it. As a big fan of Wilco, I found this to be an interesting read with a lot of insight into the early days of the band, and the dying days of Uncle Tupelo (Jeff's seminal pre-Wilco band). At times, the book reads a lot like the newspaper articles that Kot wrote about the band for years, but that's not a bad thing. Kot is a rock journalist, so it shouldn't really surprise anyone that his book comes across that way. He is essentially writing a journal of the history of this band, from their early pre-Wilco days all the way up through the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot debacle...and beyond. I was especially interested in the things Jay Farrar and Jay Bennett had to say (what's the deal with Jeff's problems with guys named Jay anyway?). I highly recommend this book for fans of the band, you won't be disappointed.
Rating: Summary: dirt and all.... Review: I'm about 10 pages from the end of this book, and I've got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's a great behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite bands, but on the other hand, it's like sausage and politics -- if you like either, you shouldn't see how they're made.
Same for this book.
Kot is clearly a Wilco fan, no secret there, and he's got a shine for Jeff Tweedy -- this has a way of excusing or justifying Tweedy's behavior towards fellow bandmates, covering Tweedy's rear by painting him as a musical genius, guilty of the same eccentricities as so many others -- inability to communicate with bandmates right up til the inevitable splits, excusing the inexcusable way Tweedy has dismissed bandmates with little or no warning by saying the ends justify the means.
I'm a fairly recent fan, being turned on to Wilco through their work with Billy Bragg -- I've since become a die-hard fan of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco and have all their albums. That said, the chapter on the Mermaid Avenue Sessions was depressing, because it paints a fairly negative picture, I'm sure accidental, of Bragg and Tweedy. They come across as spoiled, arrogant, dismissive of each other, and manipulative. I think this wasn't intentional, but it left a sour taste in my mouth.
I initially thought Kot spent a bit too much time on Uncle Tupelo, but it is a good basis for understanding the turmoil within Wilco and why Tweedy makes the kind of music he's made in and out of Wilco, and why the record industry can't quite figure out Wilco. The story of UT and the whole Farrar-Tweedy relationship paints well the future divisions and jealousies in Wilco.
All in all, a good book, and it's given me a look at Tweedy as more than a musical genius -- he's also a putz with little social graces when it comes to internal band politics, but clearly he's a talented genius and has surrounded himself with other equally talented geniuses, and doesn't care how many albums Wilco sells or how many songs, if any, make it to radio. Wilco's record sales are incredible given the lack of radio and MTV support, but the book doesn't really make this point.
It also shows how the industry treats artists, and how two different labels within the Warner umbrella treat artists differently. Record execs should read this book, if only to understand the long-term benefit of supporting heritage bands, rather than spending time and money on flash-in-the-pans.
I only gave three stars, because regardless of what other reviewers write, I think this reads too much like a die-hard fan writing giddily about their favorite band. He's got good sources, both within the band and within the industry, but he's a too little eager. I mean, really, this is what I would have written, being the star-struck goober I tend to be around famous folk.
Kot also spends as much time writing in great detail about singular events as Tweedy and Bennett did in producing YHF, and then glosses over months and years with little or no explanation of what happened during that time. Jay Bennett's 6 year stint in the band seems much shorter given this treatment.
As much as Kot excuses Tweedy's twists and turns, it's made him more human, more fallible. I know it's heresy, but the book has made me like Tweedy a little less, but like and appreciate Wilco a bit more.
Rating: Summary: like a very long, in-depth magazine article Review: My love for Wilco and specifically Jeff Tweedy goes back to the time I saw Uncle Tupelo open for Teenage Fanclub. They blew me away. My review here is biased I know but I still believe this book is worth getting if you are any kind of music lover. It's cheaply priced, paperback and an easy read. But don't be fooled by that. It is well written too. Kot knows his subject matter but I found myself wanting more. An even better version of said book could come out about ten or twenty years from now. Jeff & Co. are still contributing interesting stuff to our world. The last word has neither been sung nor spoken nor written. The book is a fun read, really, like a very long, in-depth magazine article. The U.T. stuff is the best, i think, because there has been ample time for history to marinate the story. The Jays Farrar and Bennett material is at times both sad and engaging. I wish them well on their repective journeys. All in all...good stuff. Thanks Mr. Kot.
Rating: Summary: If you love Wilco . . . Review: Part biography of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and part story of the band, this is an eminently readable book, packed with interesting stories and enough detail to satisfy even the most ardent Wilco fan. Kot was able to get almost everyone involved with Tweedy's career to talk -- including Jay Farrar, his bandmate in Uncle Tupelo, and Jay Bennett, his key collaborator in Wilco, who was kicked out of the band just after "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was recorded -- and people are surprisingly honest. The book has a bit too much of a rock-journalism tone at times, and is almost painfully earnest. But if you love Wilco or Uncle Tupelo (or both), you'll find this a nice read.
Rating: Summary: how to die from boredom Review: smug, overblown and self indulgent, this book is all the things Wilco is not.
Rating: Summary: Like I'm Part of the Band Review: That's how I felt reading this rich, wonderfully researched and intimate portrait of one of the most vital bands around. Yes, I'm a Wilco fan and perhaps predisposed to like the book -- no, strike that, I could very well dislike it intensely for that reason -- but even if you're not, if you're simply a lover of great artists and great music and fascinated with the creative process, this is necessary reading. Gret Kot captures not just the sights and sounds, but the desires and heartbreaks, along with the occasional triumph.
Rating: Summary: stellar biography of a very complex band Review: What a great read! It would have been very easy for this book to have simply been a valentine to Wilco. However, this book gives us a balanced (sometimes brutally honest) portrait of a very complicated, brilliant songwriter (frontman Jeff Tweedy), the intricacies of inter-personal relationships within the band and the larger organization surrounding them, and the creative process. Highly satisfying, very illuminating.
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